The Rural Voice, 1991-10, Page 31Howard Farms (Marion Howard)
This farm started in the mid sixties
with 10 gilts. It will have expanded to
640 sows (farrow -to -finish) by the end
of 1991.
The labour force includes three
full-time, plus one son in summer.
One more person will be hired when
the next barns are built.
They build their own barns with
the aid of subcontractors. Dry sows
and grower barns are naturally ven-
tilated, and have either flush gutters or
totally slatted floors. The farrowing
and weaner rooms are totally confined
with fan -forced flow-through ventil-
ation.
The barn uses Landrace, York,
Hamp, and Duroc breeds with some
Blackline cross boars. They primarily
use a Hamp/Landrace gilt with a
Duroc/York boar. They try to raise
their own gilts.
The layout consists of a 257 foot
by 55 foot breeding barn, several
finishing barns, and farrowing and
nursery barn. The farrowing barn has
five rooms with 24 crates each in one
long row. Pigs are weaned at 28 days.
Weaner rooms have incorporated
an easy clean system similar to a fire
safety sprinkler system for soaking a
room after emptying and prior to
pressure washing.
We observed a productive sow
herd. We only saw two farrowing
crates with litters of six. There were a
few of eight and nine, but the majority
of litters were 10 to 12.
What distinguished this farm from
the others we visited was the cleanli-
ness. I have never seen barns this
clean. There was no dust, cobwebs, or
flies. I even tried to find some dust on
top of the bottom roof truss board in
the finishing barn, but there was none.
Marion said they wash routinely with
a garden hose.
Mr. Howard did say that he feels
strongly about the image of a pig
farm. He gets as much enjoyment out
of the clean environment as he does
from the money he makes. We can
attest to the cleanliness, and the profit,
as we were entertained in a very
lovely (and ultra -neat) home prior to
our departure for home.0
by Kurt Keller, councilman
Perth County Pork Producers
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OCTOBER 1991 27